The rest of 2019 unfolded in tragedy for Hong Kong. Watching from afar I saw Hong Kong face the inevitable societal clash in the making since the 1984 Handover agreement signed by Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Communist Paryt (CCP). The original agreement was that only the lease on a part of Hong Kong was to expire in 1997, it was decided that the entirety of the territory would revert back to China at the same time as it would be impractical to divide the territory and return parts of it. Asked afterwards why she signed the agreement with Deng Xiao Ping (the Chinese Premier at the time), Mrs. Thatcher said “He said that the Chinese could walk in and take Hong Kong back later today if they wanted to”.

Decolonization is a noble and natural goal, territories politically dependent on a far away authority should be granted freedom to self-govern. The case of Hong Kong, is somewhat different. In software development, especially open-source software, a fork is where a branch of the project separates from the original project and develops on its own. Depending on development, the projects can remain compatible or have wildly different attributes after several rounds of development. When Quebec was ceded to the British in 1763 after the Seven Years War, Quebec in a way became a fork in terms of French culture from that of the mainland. Both territories have developed along democratic norms taking different routes to get there and both speak French today. Due to the geographic and cultural isolation from Metropolitan France, Quebec’s version of French is slightly different, with their own unique expressions and words, some borrowed from English and some that have become extinct in Metropolitan France but still part of the daily lexicon in Quebec. Likewise for culture, Quebec has its own unique culture, influenced by traditions from Royal France, British Rule, American proximity and being a part of Canada. Today, Quebec is a part of the North American cultural mix and it would make little sense to merge it back with France.

Hong Kong was ceded to the United Kingdom at the end of the Opium Wars in 1842. As it developed, it also adopted the civil and political structure of the United Kingdom including, common law and increasing amounts of self-government, especially in the later years of British Rule under then Governor (1992-1997) Chris Patten. These freedoms and norms were codified in the 1984 handover agreement that China promised to respect at least until 2047 (fifty years after the hand-over). In essence Hong Kong would be its own little de-facto county enjoying its own system economic and political system. This arrangement allowed the UK to leave Hong Kong with its honour intact, having guaranteed the Hong Kong Way of life for at least another 50 years, and allowed China to maintain Hong Kong as an economic and financial powerhouse as an financial doorway to China. Another reason China was keen on keeping Hong Kong operating under its own system was to showcase “One-Country, Two-Systems”. In essence there was only one China, but have different economic and political systems operating within. Using Hong Kong as a showcase for this theory, China would push this as a way to reunite Taiwan into China. In software development terms, the Hong Kong fork, similar in some respects to the Taiwan fork could continue existing and developing independently only under new project ownership.

Fast forward a few years and things have evolved differently than what was advertised. In 1993 the GDP of Hong Kong was larger than a quarter of China’s GDP (26.9%), in 2019 it represented only 2.7%. This was due to the high growth rate of the Chinese economy which grew much faster than that of Hong Kong. Hong Kong allowed China to access capital from foreign investors as it served as a financial hub, connecting western markets to mainland China, Hong Kong was the stable center between two opposing systems. The importance of Hong Kong to the regime in Beijing started to wane as other Chinese mega-cities started developing. Even Shenzhen, a backwater fishing village in the 1970s across the border from Hong Kong has grown into a mega industrial hub at times eclipsing Hong Kong’s economic power.

When the UK signed the Handover agreement in 1984, China was beginning some economic reforms, largely seen and believed to be putting China on a path to liberalization. It was generally believed that by the time 2047 came around, China would have a market based economy and potentially a liberalized political system as well. The though was that China would catch up with Hong Kong. The student uprising in June 1989 in Tienanmen Square Beijing put an end to that theory. Reformist elements in the China Communist Party were purged as a brutal repression of the student uprising unfolded in front of a powerless world.

The resulting reaffirmed social contract in China was that the Communist Party would be the unquestioned and exclusive political power in exchange for the most rapid economic growth of a nation the world has ever seen. The Communist Party has managed to bring over 850 million Chinese out of extreme poverty and has seen an average economic growth of 10% since the early eighties. The standard of living of millions of Chinese has improved, and while the standard of living may reach western levels in some areas of some cities, many parts of the country lag western nations on key development indicators.

If the Communist Party in China is to continue governing, its mandate is built upon maintaining the implicit social contract. Economic forces, environmental issues and foreign pushback are slowing the economic growth China has come to expect. Chinese President Xi Jing Ping has added an addendum to the Social Contract in the form of Nationalism as a backstop for potential economic slowdowns or downturns. This revised China doctrine merges the well being of the Communist Party with that of China. A strengthening of China’s military as well as a land/sea grab from its South East Asian neighbors coupled with an internal campaign of ethnic and cultural homogenization and more assertive integration into the political fold of Hong Kong have become signs of consolidation for CCP power in China.

With a relatively economically weaker Hong Kong, representing a diminishing portion of the economic output of China, Hong Kong’s importance to the CCP is reduced. Having a vibrant and thriving democracy on your doorstep is incompatible with the new Xi Chinese Nationalism and one party rule. The result is a concerted push to merge the Hong Kong into communist China, long before the agreed 2047 date. If this should come to pass, the people of Hong Kong would loose first and foremost their freedoms, their cultural identity and language. Hong Kong would loose its unique ability to be a bridge between east and west, and democracy would continue its slow decline in a region already poor in democracies.

It was in this context that in November 2019 I returned to Hong Kong to better understand first hand the political protests that were taking place. Landing in Hong Kong, I discovered a more muted city, the streets were devoid of people, Chinese mainland tourists that were ubiquitous a few months earlier were very few and far between. I wanted to see and photograph a protest understand the anger from the streets. What I ended up seeing was something that left me with a feeling of deep sadness. A few days before I arrived, a University student named Alex Chow was seen entering a parking structure pursued by Police in Tseung Kwan O, he was in a coma after falling from the third floor to the second floor. He died the day after I arrived. A spontaneous memorial service was to be held that evening in that Parking Structure. I was staying in Wan Chai on Hong Kong island, I walked over to the Star Ferry station and took a ferry to Kowloon. Waited in the queue for a taxi, once in the taxi I told the driver where I was going. He noticed the florescent vest, hard hat, “Press” markings and cameras I had on me. He was concerned for me and asked me to be careful.

Tseung Kwan O is a relatively new development built on reclaimed land (like much of Hong Kong). By Hong Kong standards, it was a little bit of a drive, as it is away from the main arterials of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. That didn’t stop people flowing in like rivers into the parking structure. It was around six o’clock when I got there, and I could notice that there wasn’t one type of person there. A cross-section of all of Hong Kong was there, young, old, students, people getting off from work, pensioners and the odd expat. The People of Hong Kong were there to pay respects to one of their fallen. More and more people continued to flow in, the parking structure was still in use, some cars were slowly creeping past what could easily have been thousands of mourners, and like the red sea they parted so the cars could leave. The mood was extremely somber and heavy, it was difficult for me to stay dry-eyed. Queues formed spontaneously, if this crowd was in the US, it would have been chaos and a probably stampede. The crowd self organized and the line folded on itself continuously as more and more Hong Kong Citizens came. All were unified by a common will, it was as if an ad hoc organization had formed and everyone knew what to do with no one telling them. People had come with boxes full of tealight candles, handed them out and lit them, others came with bottles of water and boxes of disposable masks (to hinder facial recognition) and handed them out or left them out so people could serve themselves. Volunteer medics roamed around in case anyone needed help.

The place where Alex’s body was found was on the second floor under an overlooking ledge on the third floor. The area was filled with flowers, a Lennon wall of post-its from fellow HKers brightened up the walls with florescent messages of hope, despair, sadness, memories, respect and vengeance.

I had seen what I came to see, and I went back to my Hotel with a most heavy heart.